Clinic staff not to blame for baby’s death outside gates

The Limpopo health department says preliminary investigations have revealed that the nursing staff at the Tshino Clinic in Vuwani was not at fault in the death of a baby born outside the clinic gates on the 20th December 2018.

Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba issued an investigation shortly after she was informed of the incident by the district office.

The department’s spokesperson Neil Shikwambana says the investigation sought to understand the processes at the clinic and whether they contributed to the death.

He says tests indicate the baby was a macerated stillborn case, having probably died in the uterus or womb some time before the mother went into labour.

Shikwambana says the investigation also noted that two days before the incident at the gates, the clinic stopped operating on a 24 hour basis, because nurses felt unsafe working the night shift.

He says there was an agreement reached that the nurses do not have to be at the clinic at night but there would always be a nurse living at the residences who would remain on call, whom security officials can call during an emergency.

Shikwambana says this is referred to as a call-out system and this agreement was endorsed by unions and community structures.

Shikwambana says the department is waiting for a final report on the matter, that still needs to determine if a nurse was available to help when the emergency call was made.

He says the goal is to ensure that the department comes up with an action plan to prevent similar incidents from happening again.